David Moyes confident Everton FC can match the league’s elite

DAVID MOYES remains unsure if Everton have the strength in depth to sustain a challenge for Champions League qualification, but performances against Arsenal and Manchester City have shown him the Blues can match the best in the division.

DAVID MOYES remains unsure if Everton have the strength in depth to sustain a challenge for Champions League qualification, but performances against Arsenal and Manchester City have shown him the Blues can match the best in the division.

Saturday’s well-deserved 1-1 draw with reigning champions Manchester City came just three days after the Blues superiority was not rewarded with a win against Arsene Wenger’s side.

Moyes felt that with a full complement of attacking options, Everton may even have been strong enough to have taken maximum points in both of those games, but the manager was nevertheless satisfied to have picked up draws with Arsenal – a team who have enjoyed 15 years of successive Champions League football – and City, a team with designs on becoming a real force in Europe’s top club competition.

But the Everton boss knows that although points against the leading sides are welcome, his side must cut out being pegged back from winning positions as they have done at times this season.

“I think that’s the way we have been playing, we wanted to go and try and make a challenge,” said Moyes.

“I think the game against Arsenal as much as this one against Manchester City shows we can have a go.

“Whether we’ll ever have enough to be right amongst those teams when it comes to it (I don’t know) but we’re not a million miles off them on a Saturday, so we can be quite close to them.

“We should have had more points. It’s not been Saturday’s point or the point against Arsenal, it’s a couple of games before that where we’ve let winning positions slip to draw them.

“It’s very rare it’s been coming back from a losing position to draw, it’s winning positions we’ve let slip.”

Although the talk is of Everton strengthening the squad in January, the form and fitness of those currently at the club is of greater importance.

Defender Phil Jagielka, who captained the side at the weekend in the absence of Phil Neville, has been in excellent form so far this season and Moyes believes the former Sheffield United man has qualities other English centre-halves do not have.

“He has been good all season in the main but in the last eight weeks in particular he’s been exceptional,” said the Everton manager.

“I don’t know where he’s at – I think there are some great English centre halves, Terry, Ferdinand – but Jags has got something that not all of them have got. He’s got great recovery, really good speed which sometimes goes unnoticed and he’ll throw himself in front of things, I think he did that with a Dzeko shot in the second half on Saturday.